News

SEAL statement 4 October

This week some children will receive a certificate if they show evidence of our weekly statement, ‘I can solve a problem.’ 

Problem solving is something we do lots of in maths but how might you solve a problem at playtime, lunchtime or maybe at home? 

Through our SEAL work in the Getting On theme, next half term, we shall be looking more closely at how to use the Peaceful Problem Solving technique.

Stranger Danger

Today, children in Year 1 – Year 6 in our school have had a brief reminder of the importance of being aware of ‘stranger danger‘.  For example:

• not getting into a stranger’s car
• making sure they go home with the right person
• not encouraging chat with strangers

We encourage you to talk to your child about this as well. 

There has been a number of incidents in Leeds schools this term so far.

We want all our children and parents / carers to be safe, happy and healthy learners.

SEAL statement 27 September

As part of the SEAL theme of New Beginnings our SEAL statement for this week is, ‘I know how others might feel when they are in a new situation.’  

As the children are settling into their new classes and routines it is chance for them to empathise with others who may find it difficult to cope with a new situation.

New Healthy Packed Lunch Guidance

In your child’s health bag, taken home at the end of Health Week, was a copy of the new Healthy Packed Lunch Guidance.

The guidance has been produced following:

• Consultations with parents, carers, governors, staff and children through questionnaires and Health and Wellbeing Development Group meetings
• A survey of packed lunches (May 2010)
• Advice from Education Leeds and the School Food Trust

Prior to the introduction of this guidance the children have been taking part in a variety of activities and curriculum sessions on promoting healthier packed lunches:

• Some of our current Year 4 and Year 5 pupils attended a Harvester restaurant in June 2010 to take part in their Fantastic Food session
• Curriculum sessions have included using the Eat Well Plate to design a balanced packed lunch, ICT nutrition programmes, trying a variety of fruit and vegetables, some for the first time, and preparing and serving dishes for packed lunches
• Promotion of healthy eating as part of our Health Week including visits to Allerton Grange Food Technology Department, Activ-Eat Health Education Programme from BUPA and the healthy food fairs

From this work we have already seen positive changes in some of our pupil’s packed lunches and we will continue to work with children to help them to understand the benefits that healthier eating will bring them.

Children are rewarded for making healthy choices in their packed lunch using stickers and also certificates designed by the pupil Health and Wellbeing Development Group. 

Once the guidance has been established a second survey will be carried out to assess its impact and results will be available and discussed at forthcoming Health and Wellbeing Development Group meetings.

We hope you will find our Packed Lunch Guidance informative and if you have any comments or questions please do contact me.  The guidance can also be downloaded from the Find out (Food) section of the website.

Health Week Success

Thank you to all parents, carers, staff and especially children for helping to make our Health Week such a great success.  Visitors to school this week have commented on the children’s excellent behaviour and enthusiasm to take part in a wide range of health activities. 

The food fairs were very popular with plenty of healthy foods to taste and maybe make at home!  If you were unable to come along or you didn’t pick up one of the recipe booklets, we have some copies available at the office.

Our school lunches stand, run by Catering Agency, was always busy.  Did you know your child can have a combination of school lunches and packed lunches across the week?  Please ask at the office for more information on this option.

Following a successful trial during Health Week and the positive responses to our recent letter, the tuck shop, run by Year 6, will be continuing every Friday at KS2 playtime.  Fruit and vegetables will be on sale for 20p-30p per item.  We hope you can support the tuck shop.

Thank you for all contributions made for the week.  They have enabled us to provide great healthy learning experiences for our children.

SEAL statement 20 September

As this week is Being Healthy week our SEAL statement is ‘I know how I can keep healthy.’  

Health Week 20 September

Health week is nearly here.  There are lots of activities and visitors planned including karate, yoga, netball, boxing, trigolf, dance, d:side, Captain Carrot, BUPA and visits to Allerton Grange.  Don’t miss the food fairs after school on Wednesday and Friday.

SEAL statement 13 September

As the children are settling into their new classes our SEAL statement for this week is ‘I understand how it feels to do something new.’  This maybe a new school, new class, new routines or many other things that are different at the start of a new year.  By recognising their own feelings in these situations the children can in turn help others.

Survey of Parents and Carers

Thank you to all the parents and carers who took the time to complete the annual survey in the Summer term.

As with previous years, we wanted to know your views about key aspects of school life: enjoying, achieving, feeling safe, being healthy etc.  We also had a particular focus on how we communicate with you.

Some key findings

100% said that their child enjoys being at Moortown Primary School and feels safe at school.  Over 90% of respondents said that Moortown Primary promotes a healthy lifestyle, that our ethos promotes their child to respect and cooperate with everyone, that behaviour is good and that communication is effective.

Based on your responses, there are just a few areas which we want to keep improving at.

Making a Positive Contribution

Although 82% of parents / carers said we encourage our children to make a positive contribution (and only 2% disgreed), we want this to be better.  This year, we’ll have a second Making a Positive Contribution Themed Week; the last was in 2009 and was a great success.  We’ll continue our lunchtime litter-picking club; this is where Mrs Bald selects from many enthusiastic volunteers to leave the school at lunchtime and tidy our local environment (look out for our Clean Up Kids during Thursday lunchtimes!). At Christmas, we’ll sing Christmas carols to the local community at Marks & Spencer again.  We’ll continue to support our two charities (WWF and NSPCC), as well as other emergency appeals (last year, helping victims of the earthquake in Haiti; this year, helping flood victims in Pakistan). Along with other Leeds schools, we’ve established links with a school in South Africa because we want our children to learn more about other cultures.

These are just a few examples of how we will encourage a positive contribution – we’re always happy to hear more.

After-school clubs

We want to provide a wide-range of clubs.  80% of you said curriculum and clubs meet the needs of children (and only 3% disagreed).  Based on your comments, most of you considered clubs, not the curriculum, when responding to this.  Your suggestions included more physical activities and drama – clubs on offer this term include gymnastics, yoga, taekwon-do, football training, street dance and street dance.  This is a greater range than ever before and all will go ahead if there’s enough interest following the taster sessions. A very small number of you also commented about the lack of clubs for children in Reception.  We offer fewer clubs for these children because by the end of the school day, we (and most parents) find their child is too tired.

Communication

Nearly all the comments regarding communications were positive: many of you appreciate the variety of different ways we’ve started to communicate, including this website and Twitter, but also texts and emails, the noticeboards and the newsletters. The only area to improve relates to cancelling clubs at the last minute: obviously this is inconvenient and we always try hard not to do this, although sometimes things out of our control mean we have no alternative.

It’s not always possible for teachers to be around at the start and end of the school day, but please be aware that teachers are happy to speak with you either straight away or by making an appointment – do this directly with the class teacher or through the school office.  We always want to listen to your questions, comments and concerns.

Thanks once again for the responses.  We do take note of areas to get even better, and we do use your responses in Ofsted documents.

If you’d like more information about the Annual Survey and the responses, please contact school.

SEAL statement 6 September

‘New Beginnings’ is the new SEAL theme for this half term and the first weekly statement is ‘I can make someone feel welcome.’

Children and also some staff are experiencing new beginnings and over this half term the children will be looking at how they can all contribute to establishing a welcoming and safe environment for learning.